Culture is far from neutral

The word "culture" used to stand for the world of thinkers or artists or many forms of conscious human development. More recently, it has enlarged its meaning to life-styles and their underlying assumptions. In this second sense it has become the main influence on how we see ourselves. Perhaps some metaphors can best capture the omnipresence and omnipotence of culture. It is like:

• an ocean, surrounding us as water a fish;
• the air we breathe, that may be healthy of polluted;
• a lens through which we see everything;
• a filter, a menu, a horizon, an agenda of images . . . .

Culture is like a second nature, literally. However, nothing about it is necessary or really natural. It may seem utterly normal to live in this particular way. Yet all our life-images are products. They came into existence from a particular history, from a set of pressures. Awakening to this non-neutrality of culture is a first step towards freedom and towards a Christian response to culture.

Adapted from Clashing Symbols: an introduction to faith-and-culture (Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1997 and Paulist Press, Mahwah, 1998).